


Spin for you like your favorite records used to

by DerekMyStiles



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Attempt at sexual assault is in 2nd chapter, Attempted Sexual Assault, Awkward Derek Hale, Brief Stiles/OMC, Dating, F/M, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, POV Stiles, Renovator!Stiles, Werewolf Derek, Wolf Derek Hale, mentions of other teen wolf characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-12 14:15:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4482395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerekMyStiles/pseuds/DerekMyStiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is, weirdly, the only one who stayed in Beacon Hills. He works as an apartment renovator and has dinner with his dad and Melissa every Friday. Life is good and quiet up until he meets a big black dog that seems to understand human language a bit too well. But as it often is in Beacon Hills, nothing is ever as it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Fall Out Boy's "Favorite Record".
> 
> Please let me know if you find any mistakes (the work is not beta read and English is not my first language) and/or you feel like I should add any additional tags. I tried to catch everything and decided to rate the fic M just in case, but you never know!

Stiles is 22 and he is alone. Not literally, thank God, but all of his friends left Beacon Hills over the time. It was kind of ironic, really, that it was Stiles who stayed, because he swore to himself that he will leave this gate to the hell as soon as possible. He was also the only “normal human” in their little pack – оr what was left of it after Alpha pack went through the town – and therefore hadn’t had any significant instinct that would make him feel like he needs others so much that his life depends on it. He had plans – go to college, find a job, find love…

But college, well, he realized it isn’t really for him. He thought it will be time of his life, but it was just stressing him constantly. And when his dad told him that he knows about free spot at local real estate agency, Stiles didn’t hesitate twice. In three years he has climbed the ladder almost to the top. He has a flexible schedule, steady income and all he has to do is fix the place and sell it to the highest offer. It’s definitely not what he imagined he’d do in the future, but he likes the job. He just loves the happy expressions of people who find the perfect place to call it home. Plus he gets to rent one of the apartments for half of the price and how awesome is that?!

As for his friends… Scott, Allison and Isaac formed their tiny little pack and moved up to Vancouver (“All that nature, dude!” as Scott graciously explained), accepted by local, very cosmopolitan, pack. Allison works as an archery trainer for professional athletes from North America, while Scott organizes local charity events. Isaac started studying arts and apparently doesn’t really rush to finish his studies. Lydia and Danny got themselves job with NASA, thanks to their phenomenal project they did together at university. Stiles didn’t really understood what was it about, but he still was very happy for both of them. As for certain Alpha and his little sister… nobody really heard from them since they left, only sometimes Still gets a postcards from all our the world. They are only signed – “Cora” – and are still arriving at the Stilinski residence, even though it is only his dad and Melissa (fucking finally!) living there, not Stiles. Anyway, they all (except the long lost siblings) keep skyping almost every Friday, usually right after Stiles arrives home from his regular dinner with his dad and Melissa. 

It wasn’t really easy for the others, to leave Beacon Hills. Obviously, it was their hometown, but also, Scott felt immensely responsible for the territory. Being the True Alpha does that to you. But he waited until he turned eighteen, staying put and nothing supernatural ever showed up (Stiles still couldn’t believe it). And when Deaton pointed out that the Hale’s were respected among North American packs and nobody will most likely try to snatch their territory out of pure respect to their memory, Scott finally decided. There might have been tears when they were leaving, but Stiles will never admit to actually crying.

Anyway, the reality looks like this: Stiles has his own flat, a job and friends all over the country. So what that he never really made any other friends in Beacon Hills? He works a lot, since he just loves to hunt down the perfect piece of furniture for each flat or house he has to sell, and he spends his free time broadening his horizons. He never really stopped researching stuff, only now it’s not so much about supernatural, as it’s about history and literature and about learning foreign languages. He can honestly say he is happy. Alright, maybe sometimes, in the night, he gets lonely. But who doesn’t? Everyone loves to cuddle and Stiles never really had any relationship outside a few one night stands. It’s not like he is rushing into marriage or whatever…

 

. . .

 

He is walking home from shopping; bag full of groceries in one hand, delicious vanilla ice cream in other. It’s a nice day, almost eleven in the morning and Stiles has whole week for himself since he successfully sold his latest “project” yesterday. He is just around the corner from his flat when huge black dog appears seemingly out of nowhere and heads straight to him at almost break-neck speed. “OH MY GOD!” Stiles flails and his ice cream cone goes flying, but the dog pays no attention to his freak-out and buries his snout in Stiles’ crotch, wiggling his tail happily. The young man eventually calms down since the animal doesn’t really seem like it’s about to bite him in the ass and does what he does the best: tries to reason with it.

“Heyyy, doggie, where is your owner, huh? Would you stop sniffing my crotch? Where the hell is your owner?!” Stiles looks around, but the streets are nearly deserted and nobody really looks like their dog just assaulted random stranger. Stiles looks for a collar, but the dog doesn’t have any. “Well, buddy, this is kinda unfortunate for you, because my dad is the sheriff and I can’t just leave you here. So I gotta call him and he will call some dude that will have to catch you and- UGH!”

The dog looks even bigger standing on his hind legs, his front paws on Stiles’ shoulders as he licks happily at human’s face. Stiles sputters and pushes the dog down, “Okay, enough! Not only I dropped my ice cream because of your furry ass scaring me to death, but now I dropped my groceries too!” The dog sits down immediately and whines pathetically as Stiles hastily collects the oranges that rolled in probably every direction possible.

With all his food back in his bag, Stiles stands up and starts walking home again, intending to call the station when he gets there. But the dog follows him and while Stiles pays him no attention, pretending that he didn’t notice him at all, the dog seems content with staying two steps behind him the whole way. In front of the door to the building, Stiles stops and turns, glaring down at the dog. “Okay, buddy, it was nice meeting you and all, but I don’t really want to see you again, so…. Hush! Go! Run chase squirrels!”

The dog stands up and for a second Stiles feels like a dog whisperer… but then the stupid animal just noses at his hand briefly and the licks it, nudging him towards the door. Stiles sighs. He always wanted a dog when he was a kid. But then his mom got ill and when she died… let’s say that he didn’t want to get attached again only to watch the animal die eventually. But this dog doesn’t really seem like it would make him happy to be left here and well… Stiles is sucker for puppy eyes. Scott would know. “If you piss on my floors…” Stiles warns and opens the door, letting the dog in.

 

Stiles didn’t call his dad. As soon as he sat down on the couch, the dog’s big fluffy head was on his knee and it was… nice. When Stiles patted him awkwardly, the dog huffed and his tail wiggled so fast it could fall off. “Oh fuck it!” Stiles swore when he realized that he already got attached, how is this his life?

“Okay, my house – my rules, so listen: No sleeping in my bed and you can go on the couch only when I tell you so. No peeing or pooing here! If you want out, just… we will get you a leash so you can bring it like all those cute puppies on the internet. No chewing of furniture, no human food… I think that’s it for now. So… sleep, or whatever.” Stiles is actually amazed when the dog just goes and curls down under the table in front of the couch.

 

The night was quiet and Stiles can’t really say anything against having a dog so far. It hasn’t spilled even a drop of water from his bowl, even though it obviously drank it. “Look, dude, I will head to the shop, get you some kibble, leash and all that stuff. I should probably take you to the vet, but… you seem healthy enough and honestly, Deaton creeps me out.” Stiles heads to the door and then stops to look back at the dog, “Um, you probably need to go out, huh?” Of course, the dog doesn’t say anything, but it stands up and goes sit down next to Stiles’ leg.

The walk to the grocery shop is okay and only in front of it Stiles realizes that he can’t really ensure the dog stays. He stares at the dog for a while and then sighs, “Please, don’t make me spent money for dog stuff for no reason, okay? Be here when I come back. Stay!” The dog doesn’t move an inch.

And when exits the shop with dog kibble, collar and a leash (and bar of chocolate for himself in his pocket), the dog is waiting for him in the exact same spot. “Thank god,” Stiles mutters and puts the kibble down to fasten the collar around the dog’s neck. The collar is black, almost as much as the dog, with a red leash (because there is nothing worse than tripping over a fucking dog leash that just blends with the pavement). “There, what a stud you are!” Stiles exclaimed and the dog yelped happily back.

The day flies by quickly with Stiles practicing his French, cooking himself enough food for next three days and the dog making puppy eyes at him from his food bowl, because apparently, he is too classy for kibble. Stiles breaks and throws him a few pieces of raw chicken breasts that disappear between the dog’s sharp teeth in a blink. When Stiles finally gets himself on his couch, ready to just watch some movie and relax, it’s already dark. The dog is lying under the table, by Stiles’ feet; obviously the animal likes the spot well enough. Right now, it seems to nap, so Stiles softly says, “Hey, buddy, you awake?” The dog lazily opens one eye, but otherwise doesn’t move, apparently completely disinterested in his human. “Come here, will you?” Stiles tries again and pats the couch next to his leg. The dog moves like a flash and in a second his is sprawled all over the couch and Stiles’ legs, his head resting against young man’s belly.

Stiles runs his fingers through the dog’s fur and sighs. The fur is so soft and the animal’s body so warm and comfortable weight on Stiles… god, he is pathetic. “What are we gonna watch, huh?” Stiles asks as he opens Netflix. “How about Underworld, hmm?” The dog huffs and Stiles takes it as a yes. Stiles falls asleep halfway through with the dog still sprawled over him. Despite the couch not being really comfortable, he hasn’t slept better in years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check the end of chapter for notes and warnings.

Next two days pass in a blur of Stiles looking at a new project, Stiles taking his dog to a park and Stiles researching everything possible about having a dog. He also keeps eye on every lamp-post or walls covered by ads, in case anyone has put up posters looking for the lost animal, but nothing turns up. Seems like this perfectly domesticated dog just… isn’t missed. Maybe someone just threw him out. Every time Stiles thinks about it, he just has to hug the poor thing for a minute, telling him that’s it’s alright and he won’t ever kick him out. The dog just wiggles his tail even faster, sticking his cold nose in the crook of Stiles’ neck, huffing happily.

 

. . .

 

Anyway, Friday is here and Stiles realizes that he hasn’t told his dad about having a dog. He guesses that today is good as any other day to introduce his new fluffy friend to the rest of the family, and so he calls the sheriff after the breakfast, aware that his dad should be working right now.

“Hi, kiddo, what do you need?” the sheriff asks and Stiles immediately lights up.  
“You wound me, can’t I just call my favourite dad without wanting something?”  
“I am your only dad, Stiles,” the sheriff replies dryly.  
“I know, I know, and you are the best one, too! Seriously though, would it be alright with you and Melissa if I brought a dog today to the dinner?”  
“I don’t know Stiles, we were thinking about having a steak, but if you insist on a dog instead…” the sheriff says, his tone obviously light. Then he adds, “Of course you can. If he can behave more than you, which… is actually possible. Where did you get a dog anyway? Are you sure you can handle him? Why didn’t we talk about it before?”  
“Omg, stop with the interrogation! I found him, okay. He ran to me, didn’t have a collar… I wanted to call you, so someone would pick it up, but he followed me home and well… he’s been with me for a few days and he is being a very nice dog, I swear. You will let me know if Melissa has something against it, right?”  
“Stiles, Melissa’s son is a werewolf. I think she can handle a dog in our house. Just come by at seven, both of you, alright? See ya.”  
“See ya then, daddy-o.”

For some reason, Stiles is nervous about it. He spends half of the afternoon combing the dog’s fur until the dog growls at him softly and goes to lie down under the table. Anyway, his black fur shines beautifully and Stiles tells the dog so; then he swears the dog actually rolls his eyes at him.

The dinner is a hit. Melissa loves the dog and the dog obviously loves Melissa, even though he doesn’t stick his snout into her crotch like he does to Stiles. He is wary around the sheriff though, at least until the older man sigh and says, “Seriously, I am not going to shoot you, my son obviously loves you.” Then the dog comes running into his hands. Before he leaves, Stiles hands his father the phone and crouches down next to the dog, throwing an arm around his neck. “Take a photo of us, I will make us Facebook official!” Stiles laughs and the phone’s camera clicks as the dog licks over his cheek enthusiastically.

As they are walking back to the apartment, Stiles posts the pic on FB with caption: “Me and my new best bud! Sorry, Scotty!” The phone chirps later as he is getting himself beer from the fridge and when he checks it, message from Scott is waiting for him.

**_Not cool, bro! The dog looks familiar! What’s its name?_ **

Stiles replies quickly: **_Suck it! The dog looks like a dog. Haven’t given him a name yet._**

Scott: **_U r a weirdo._**

Stiles shakes his head fondly, waving at the dog to let him know it’s okay to join him on the couch. The dog is pressed against his side immediately and Stiles rubs behind his ears. “Scotty is right, I should give you a name. Hmm… so… I guess I can’t call you simply “Dog”, huh?” The dog in question makes a sound similar to snort. “What about Vader? Since you are all black and menacing?” The animal looks completely unimpressed and Stiles sighs, “Whatever, I will think of something while we watch TV.” He settles down with the dog all over him again as he watches some random late-night reruns of Buffy.

The dog slowly migrates up Stiles chest, until his nose is pushed against man’s neck and the hot breath tickles against Stiles’ ear. Stiles watches with hooded eyes as Buffy comes running late to stop Riley from leaving and soon enough he finds himself sniffing and on a verge of tears. The dog whines unhappily and tries to push himself even closer and Stiles laughs kind of hysterically as he pats his neck, “It’s okay, buddy, I’m just… being stupid. It’s just that…” he sniffs against and briefly thing about how pathetic he is for making a dog his therapist, but then the dog whines again and Stiles just thinks: fuck it. “This episode always reminds me of this grumpy werewolf I once knew, you know?” He doesn’t even notice that the dog tenses up completely and continues, “He left, five years ago and I… I didn’t even have the chance to stop him, because I didn’t know he is going to leave and… I never really got over it. Over him. I think that I… loved him. I still do. God, I miss him so fucking much that sometimes I can’t even think straight.”

Stiles sighs again and untangles his hand from the dog’s fur to wipe at his eyes. “You kinda remind me of him. Not that I think you are going to just leave… God, I hope you won’t just leave, because that would seriously break my heart, but… I think, if he could change into actual wolf, he’d look a lot like you. All black and strong and beautiful. And you even roll your eyes like he always did whenever I said something. I think… I think I am going to call you Alpha. Alpha of my heart.” The dog – Alpha – licks softly at the side of Stiles neck and the human squirms, giggling, “Alpha, you were named after the bravest man I’ve ever known…” Then he cracks up laughing completely when the dog huffs all annoyed and jumps of the couch to lie down under the table again, as if he could possibly know Harry Potter and Stiles’ love for stupid nerdy jokes.

 

. . .

 

Stiles and Alpha are roomies for almost three weeks now. Stiles can finally honestly say he is not talking to himself, but to Alpha, who (for a dog that doesn’t understand human language) looks like he knows what his human is talking about. At some point, they moved their couch-cuddles to the bed, because the dog’s hairs are everywhere anyway and Stiles, well, he has to admit that it’s nice not to wake up alone, even though he shares his bed with a dog instead of lover.

Only problem is, Stiles is still a guy and he still has… needs. And sometimes he wakes up with persistent morning boner. That wouldn’t be all the special, except that it’s always hassle to get Alpha to leave the room. First few times Alpha actually wanted to… help?!? Stiles nearly broke his neck as he flailed himself out of the bed and ended up on floor. He might be desperate, but he doesn’t want to nurse a bestiality kink, thank you very much. Sometimes, he tries to reason with Alpha until the dog gets annoyed and leaves; sometimes he just wobbles to the bathroom and makes quick business of his problem. He hasn’t given himself a nice, drawn-out orgasm since he got the dog and it’s starting to get on his nerves a bit.

“Will you bite a stranger in his ass, if I bring someone home tonight? Will you even be alright with me coming back around one in the morning?” Stiles asks one morning when he decides that he is heading to the Jungle to snatch himself someone who will fuck him properly. Alpha stares at him for a moment (he tends to use same tactics as the man he is named after) and then he growls softly and pads over to the bedroom, probably to drool on the pillow a bit in a protest. “Fine! Whatever, I am a free man and I don’t need no dog to allow me to get a hot dude to fuck!” Stiles yells after the animal, getting only another growl in reply.

When he is leaving to the club in the evening, he prays that he knows Alpha well enough to honestly say that he won’t attack whoever he comes home with tonight. Just to be sure, he gives the dog another pep talk, while he tries to stop Alpha from untangling his laces for _fifth_ time already. “Dude, seriously, let me go! And don’t you dare being a bad dog when I come home. If you attack someone, I will get in trouble and you will be put down. And trust me, I don’t really want either of that to happen. Be a nice doggy and stay!”

 

Few hours in a bar and Stiles is already grinding against tall and muscly dude with dark brown hair, who is not ashamed to squeeze his ass every minute while he sucks bruises into pale skin of Stiles’ throat. Stiles decides that he is already aroused enough and judging by the hardness in the guy’s (what’s his name again?) pants, they are on a same page.

“Want to move it to horizontal position?”  
“Hell yeah,” the guy mutters lowly against Stiles’ ear, squeezing his ass again, this time just a side of painful and Stiles hisses, “Easy there, tiger, I am fragile. Let’s go, I live like ten minutes from here.”

 

They stumble into Stiles’ apartment and Alpha is, thankfully, not in his bed. Not that Stiles has much time to pay his attention to where actually his dog is, since the guy is quickly undressing him, almost tearing his t-shirt in a process. “Hey, watch it, it’s one of my favourites!” Stiles squeaks as the guy pushes him on the bed. “Shut up,” the man growls and straddles Stiles’ hips. Stiles tries to arch up to kiss him, but the guy pays him no attention and instead moves to pull his belt out of the loops of his pants.

“What are you doing?” Stiles asks, because even though he is a bit tipsy, he knows that you don’t actually have to get rid of your belt completely to take your pants off. The guy, however, doesn’t answer and instead quickly grabs Stiles’ wrists and before Stiles knows what’s going on, his hands are tied to the bedpost. He starts to panic. “What the fuck, let me go, I am not into that shit with strangers! Let me the fuck go!”

The man grins down at him as he grinds his crotch against Stiles belly and Stiles realizes that he is very much fucked, completely naked and unable to move his hands. He has no chance to throw the guy off, since he is almost twice as big. “I’m going to fuck that tight little ass and you are going to like it. And if you behave nicely, I might fuck your pretty loud mouth too later.” Stiles bucks up and strains against the belt, “NO! Get off me you fucker! This is rape! Let me-“ His own yells drown in a scream the attacker lets out, flailing away from Stiles and trying to reach back. As he turns frantically around, Stiles realizes that Alpha, his good loyal Alpha has his teeth deep in the back of the prick’s shoulder.

“Shit! Shit! Get off me you filthy animal!” the man yells and Alpha bites down even harder before he lets go completely, standing on the bed between Stiles and the attacker, who doesn’t hesitate twice and bolts, slamming the apartment door shut behind himself. But Stiles doesn’t really pay any attention to that, because he is shaking and crying, even as Alpha jumps on the bed and rips the belt off with his teeth. He nuzzles close to his human then, whining softly and licking at Stiles neck until the man calms down enough to breathe normally again.

He doesn’t know how long he lies there with his dog, but then he finally stand up and goes find his phone to call his dad.  
“Stiles, it’s two in the morning, what’s going on? Are you in danger?”  
“I… no… the dog - Alpha saved me, I… I am okay, dad, just wanted to…”  
“What happened?” sheriff sounds freaked out, rightfully so when his only son sounds so upset.  
“There was a guy… I-I brought him home and he… he wanted to… Alpha bit him in the shoulder and I think… I just want to be sure he won’t try to do… that to anyone again.”  
“God! Are you injured?”  
“No, he didn’t actually… Alpha was there.”  
“Okay. Okay, listen to me, kiddo. I will come pick you and Alpha up and drive you to the house, okay? You will sleep there tonight, Melissa will take care of both of you. In the morning, I will drive you to station and you will make a statement, alright? You will be able to do that?”  
“Yeah. I mean… I want to. I need to, he can’t… god.”  
“I will be there in ten, pack whatever you and the dog need, okay? I will use my key, don’t open to anyone, promise?”  
“Promise.”

Stiles takes a shaky breath, dresses himself and then goes and packs everything he will need almost robotically, while Alpha trails after him all over the place. When the keys finally dingle behind the door, Stiles feels much better and falls right into his dad’s arms.

Melissa is waiting for them on the porch when they arrive and Stiles feels sorry for waking her up. But she smiles softly at him and wraps him a hug too; then she goes and hugs Alpha too in thanks. He doesn’t really sleep that night, but Alpha is there with him in his old bed and he feels safe.

In the morning, his dad assures again he is okay giving the statement, but over the night Stiles steeled himself, absolutely certain he wants that fucker to rot in jail. Alpha is with him the whole time and the officer who writes everything down seems understanding enough, telling him that he is doing a right thing. She also admits that the has been a few similar assaults already, but Stiles is the first one to actually being able to recall how does the guy look. The fact that now he also sports a dog bite on his shoulder helps a lot too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter is a brief description of attempted sexual assault. Stiles finds himself in potentionally dangerous situation while restrained and naked. He is threatened with sexual violence. However, he is saved before he is hurt. He is traumatized after, but manages to deal with the situation with the help of Sheriff and Melissa.
> 
> Please, let me know if I should add any more tags.


	3. Chapter 3

Another month passes by and Stiles feels normal again. He stopped waking up at night randomly and doesn’t search for the attacker in every shadow. The fact that the guy was caught and put into prison thanks to his statement obviously helped a lot. He knows he was lucky, if Alpha wasn’t there… He doesn’t dare to think about that. Still, he keeps whole thing a secret, making his dad and Melissa promise that they will never tell anyone about what happened. He goes back to his routine of work, research, playing with Alpha and everything is as fine as it can possibly be after something like that.

He finally decides to take Alpha to the vet. Since nobody is looking for a lost dog and Stiles intends to keep him, he thinks it’s only right to give him his shots and just go through a general check-up. He is not really thrilled to see Deaton, but well, it’s not like Beacon Hills has any more vets. Getting Alpha into the car turns out to be a bit tricky, though. He jumps into the Jeep no problem on Friday evenings, but now it looks like Alpha despises car rides with his whole being.

“C’mon, buddy, get in!” Stiles grunts, tugging on Alpha’s collar. “Don’t you wanna go for a run through Preserve? We are going to Preserve!” exclaims Stiles, trying to sound enthusiastic. But Alpha just fixes him with a glare that easily translates as _really, you are trying to lie to me?_ and then plops down on his ass again. “Jesus, alright, stop giving me that! I want to take you to the vet! You need a check up, I want you to be healthy! The healthier you are, the longer you will live and that will make me happy! You want to make me happy, don’t you?” Stiles flails and Alpha even manages to look a bit apologetic, nosing against his hand briefly. But he doesn’t move an inch.

Stiles sighs. Alpha is too big and too stubborn for Stiles to just pick him up and put him into the trunk. He rubs the back of his neck and tries again: “Alright, look… I shouldn’t, but I will buy you a steak for dinner the whole week if you get in the car and then behave yourself at the vet. Deal?” Stiles kind of feels like an idiot for talking to a dog and attempting to make _deals_ with him, but strangely, Alpha tilts his head for a moment as if he is thinking the offer over and then he jumps on the front seat. Stiles just stares until Alpha yips at him, as if telling him to hurry up.

The drive to the vet is uneventful, except for Stiles kind of stressing over it. He knows it’s stupid, but he always took this road in emergency and he is having kind of Pavlovian response to it. He just feels like he is driving towards another mystery, another monster, another situation in which he will be asked to cut someone’s arm off. He startles a bit when Alpha nudges his shoulder with his snout. He glances at the dog and shrugs, “Hey, no worries, right? It’s just a check up.” Alpha doesn’t really look like he believes him.

The vet clinic is eerily empty, just as it always was in the middle of the night when they dragged in another injured pack member. Stiles feels vaguely nauseous, but puts on a brave face for sake of his dog. Yeah, right, who is he kidding here? He sits down in the waiting room and soon enough, young woman opens the door of vet’s office.

“Hello, can I help you?” she asks, her face friendly.  
“Uh, hello. Yes. Well, I found this dog like two months ago and it seems like nobody is looking for him, so I decided to keep him. So, umm, I was thinking he should have a check up? And get shots? I mean, he looks healthy, but…” Stiles blushes, he must sound like someone who seriously shouldn’t have any pets.  
“Alright! That’s smart of you, come on in! I’m doctor Wentworth, I’m covering for doctor Deaton while he is on a business trip,” she says and Stiles is immediately relieved.

Alpha obediently jumps on the examination table and sniffs dr. Wentworth’s hand when she offers it to him. Stiles feels stupidly proud of him, even though he wasn’t the one to train him. He thinks that he would probably fuck that up, if he is being honest with himself.

“You said you found him? Hmm, I can’t really tell what breed it is… He is really big and muscular for any usual breed of dog. Actually… Uh, he actually looks a lot like wolf, except he is really docile. Maybe he is some mix with a husky…” the doctor says, seemingly more to herself than to Stiles, but he doesn’t mind. “Has he ever been aggressive towards you, other people, dogs or other animals?”  
Stiles briefly flashes back to the night of the attack, feels himself getting a bit pale, but he puts on determined expression and says: “No, not at all. He was friendly right away, didn’t mind my dad and his girlfriend. He doesn’t really care about other dogs, though. He just ignores them, but doesn’t lash out when they come near to sniff him. He has been… Really great, actually. I think somebody might have kicked him out,” Stiles finishes, surprised to find himself rubbing over Alpha’s head absentmindedly. The dog is waving his tail like crazy.

“Well, that’s good. I mean his behaviour, not the kicking out part. Anyway. He seems in good shape, but I will take his blood just in case and give him the usual shots. It’s possible he already got them before, but it shouldn’t be an issue either way. Gotta warn you, he might be a bit sick later, so you better give him smaller portion of food and watch the reaction,” the doctor smiles, patting Alpha as she speaks. “You want him to get registered here?”  
“Sure, why not,” shrugs Stiles and dr. Wentworth hands him a form to fill in. He starts up on that while she takes Alpha’s blood and gives him his shots. The dog is surprisingly calm the whole time. When she is done, she gives Stiles Deaton’s card with her work number scribbled underneath the neat print and pats Alpha again, wishing them safe trip home.

When they arrive back to apartment, they settle on the couch and Stiles watches old episodes of The Office. He is not really paying attention though, thinking about what the doctor said. It’s true that Alpha is a bit… big for a dog, but a wolf? He’d have to be domesticated since he was tiny puppy, but who would kick him out? It couldn’t have been easy to train him, so why wasting the effort by getting rid of him later? “Well, aren’t you a one big mystery, huh buddy?” Stiles says, rubbing behind Alpha’s ears. The dog just snuffles and pushes his nose against Stiles’ neck, making the human yelp at the cold feeling.

 

. . .

 

He is well settled into his usual schedule when one day, his phone chirps with new FB message. Stiles’ jaw hits the floor when he realizes it’s from Cora. It only says “call me asap” and the number is included; Stiles doesn’t hesitate to ring her up.

“Cora…?” he asks disbelievingly and Alpha lifts up his head, letting out something between growl and a whine.  
“Yeah, listen… Is your dog there?” she sounds older, her voice determined, but friendly. Stiles relaxes minutely, he was worried that something happened to her or to Derek.  
“Um, yeah, Alpha is here, why?” at the mention of his name, the dog (already looking pretty antsy) whines pitifully and runs away to the bedroom.  
“You called him Alpha?” Cora snorts.  
“Yeah, and what?” Stiles says, annoyed with her laughing at him after five years of almost complete silence between them.  
“You… you really don’t know, right? Crap…” she sounds frustrated and sad now and Stiles is confused. His confusion quickly melts into panic as Alpha runs past him and right to the front door.  
“I don’t know what?” Stiles asks, impatient and there is a sound of door opening and Stiles is about to freak out and run after his dog who just fucking opened the door and left the apartment when Cora mutters, “It’s Derek, Stiles. The dog isn’t dog… It’s Derek.”

 

Stiles barely manages to put on sneakers and he is already out on the street, head snapping in all directions looking for Alp-DEREK. Derek, who has apparently slept in his bed for two fucking months and didn’t feel like it’s necessary to maybe change back and tell him. Derek, who sniffed his crotch and licked his face. Derek, who saved him from being assaulted. God. Now everything makes so much more sense. Stiles feels like an idiot for thinking that any animal could understand words so well. He runs around the block, but of course, no huge black WEREWOLF anywhere. Stiles can feel his eyes getting teary and he yells, “Derek! Come back! DEREK!” He doesn’t even care that the few people walking down the street are looking at him like he is crazy, because maybe he is.

He jumps into his Jeep and drives around the town for two hours until it gets dark. Then he goes back to his apartment, crashes on the couch, calls Cora (“No, Stiles, I can’t explain. He refused to leave to Europe with me and I haven’t seen him since. I didn’t think… I just saw your Facebook post and figured I’d ask about it. I’m sorry.”) and then cries himself to sleep.

When he wakes up, it’s almost noon. Belatedly, he realizes it’s Friday and his dad and Melissa expect him at dinner.. Stiles contemplates calling his dad that he is sick, because honestly, he feels like shit. Like the biggest fucking idiot. But he knows that his dad would see right through his lie, so eventually, after hours of staring at the ceiling, he gets up, takes a shower, gets dressed and leaves to casa de Stilinski. He drives slowly, his eyes scanning the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of Derek. But no such luck. When he arrives to his childhood home, he has to just breathe for a few minutes.

There is no point in that, though, because as soon as his dad takes one look at him, he knows something is wrong. Bless his keen detective senses.  
“Stiles, what’s wrong? Where is Alpha? Did something happen to him?” his dad asks worriedly. Stiles has to laugh, but it comes out all wrong.  
“Yeah… Alpha is… He is- It was Derek all along. Cora called me yesterday and he just flipped and ran away,” mumbles Stiles, rubbing the back of his neck.  
“WHAT?” his dad yells and Stiles flinches. “What the hell? Derek?! As in Derek Hale? He didn’t tell you?”  
Stiles snorts, “What do you think? I thought it’s just… very, very intelligent dog that rolls his eyes a lot.”  
“Where is he now?” asks Melissa, standing in the kitchen door.  
Stiles shrugs. “I have no idea. I ran after him immediately and then drove around the city until it was dark, but I didn’t see him anywhere.”

His dad stares at him for a moment and then he sighs, motioning to the kitchen. “C’mon, let’s eat. We can discuss how am I going to shoot him later.” Stiles loves his dad, he really does. Melissa smiles at him briefly and they sit down to have dinner.

 

A hand rests on his shoulder as Stiles washes dishes. “You can stay here tonight if you want, we don’t mind. We were planning on watching some movie,” his dad says in a tone that Stiles interprets as talking-to-small-scared-animals-tone. Well. Stiles shakes his head, “Thanks, but it’s alright. I mean… He is gone so. Yeah. It will be fine.” His dad looks like he doesn’t believe him one word (after all, Stiles doesn’t believe himself either), but thankfully doesn’t comment on that. He and Melissa bid Stiles goodbye and he drives back to his apartment.

Stiles doesn’t sleep well. It takes him too long to fall asleep and when he finally does, he has bad dreams, mostly about things that happened when he was a teenager and every baddie in America wanted a piece of Hale land. His dreams are almost identical to his memories, except that dream Derek looks like Alpha – well, like Derek does look in full shift. That makes all the dreams incredibly creepy, because A) talking wolf, and B) Stiles was already hopelessly gone on Derek back then and feeling attracted to _wet dog_ just doesn’t feel right.

He wakes up with a start when Kelpie drags him underwater _again_ and gasps for breath for a minute or two, trying to calm down. He gets up, makes himself a coffee and forces a bagel down his throat. He should go and look at his new project, but that seems like too much work right now. He catches himself staring at the wall half an hour later and decides to just go back to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, the big revelation *might* have arrived sooner than expected, but don't worry, there are plenty of problems to solve now!  
> I hope you are enjoying the story so far, let me know what you think :)


	4. Chapter 4

So maybe, just maybe, Stiles is moping. He hates to admit that to himself, but having a dog was nice. Really nice. Even if the dog wasn’t actually a dog. The point it, Stiles had someone to hang out with, someone to come home to and someone to cuddle with at night. It was nice to take care of someone. Stiles hates waking up alone.

It’s been nearly two weeks since Cora’s phone call and Stiles has lost himself in the latest renovation project. He decided that if he is busy, he doesn’t have time to be sorry for himself and it’s mostly working out. The loft he is working on was abandoned for a few years, so it was in need of major renovation. After checking the water and electricity, Stiles repainted the whole thing (mostly in white and shades of blue), hung up deep purple blackout curtains and assembled majority of the furniture. It is coming along nicely and Stiles is really pleased with himself when he calls his boss that she can start bringing in potential buyers.

“You are finishing it already?” Stacy asks and Stiles hums his affirmative. “You’ve been working on it for just two weeks. Are you sure it’s ready?”  
“Yeah, totally. I mean, I might bring in some flowers or decoration tomorrow or on Thursday, but that’s it. It’s done and all good to sell. Normally, I’d show it to clients myself, but I’m feeling kind of sick, so I think I will leave the selling part to you, this time.” Stiles really likes Stacy and feels kinda bad about lying to her, but he really isn’t in a mood for working his selling magic. Stacy is in her forties, but doesn’t act like she deserves respect just for being older than members of her team. She helped Stiles a lot when he started and everyone in the company trusts her. She is hell of a seller and Stiles is certain that the loft won’t stay on the market for more than three weeks.  
Stacy laughs and the sounds is tinny over the phone, “Alright, alright, I believe you. Actually, just this morning some hottie came in asking about free apartments suitable for bachelors, I think a loft would be perfect fit for him. I’ll bring him in tomorrow after lunch.”  
“Great, I should be gone by then. Thanks and good luck!”

 

The next day, Stiles stops by local gardening shop and buys a few pot plants, two vases and some tulips and heads to the loft. He places the pot plants in the bedroom and vases with tulips in the living room and on the kitchen island respectively, to add some life and colour into those spaces. The pot plants are nothing fancy, basically just green leaves, but that makes them easy to take care of and after all, the point is to bring some green into the room.

He is just wiping their leaves with wet rag to get rid of the dust when he hears the sound of keys in the lock. He checks his watch, but sure, it’s only eleven in the morning and Stacy with her client shouldn’t be here for at least another two hours. Seems like there was a change of plans and she forgot to tell Stiles. Well, no point in hiding in the bedroom like a creeper, thinks Stiles. He is about to go out and greet the guests, when he hears it.

“Wow, this is… This is a really great place,” says a male voice, smooth and steady, pleasant surprise obvious in the tone. Stiles stops dead in his tracks because he might have not spoken to Derek Hale in years, but he’d recognize the voice anywhere even today. Stiles isn’t proud of himself, but he panics. He is sure that Derek must know he’s here, but he just doesn’t care, he can’t look him in the eyes. He considers locking himself in the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom, but then his eyes fall on the window with a fire exit.

He briefly thanks his past self for almost closing the door behind himself, because like this there is a chance Stacy won’t notice him sneaking out through the window. He opens it quietly and with all the grace and carefulness he can manage, he climbs out and quickly but silently takes the stairs down. When his feet hit the pavement, he feels kind of stupid, but he shakes the feeling off and heads to where his Jeep is parked.

Only, there is a problem. He left his car keys on the bed. “Fucking shit!” he swears, running fingers through his hair. Now he has to walk home and hope that his spare copy of keys is where he thinks it is. Beacon Hills is a small town, but Stiles didn’t really plan on taking a forty minutes walk today. Well, hopefully Stacy notices the keys and takes them for him. He could call her, but…

 

Two hours later his phone rings. Stiles sighs, closing yet another drawer where his spare car keys are _not_ located and picks it up. It’s Stacy.   
“Stiles! You are a gift that keeps on giving! The loft is sold!” she exclaims.  
“Yeah? That’s… that’s great, really, I’m glad,” Stiles says with a shrug she can’t see.  
“You don’t sound very excited for someone who just earned himself a really fat check as a bonus,” Stacy replies. “The flu really got you, huh?”  
“Flu? What- Oh, yeah! Yeah, I’m not feeling so great. But I’m glad to hear the buyer liked the place, really. And I’m glad I left the selling part to you,” he laughs nervously, partially hoping it will come out as sort-of cough.   
“Well, the client, Derek Hale, was in love with the place immediately! He kept praising the colour scheme and the smell. Weirdo, usually the clients don’t like the smell of new place, but he just kept saying it smells like home. Whatever, the point is, it’s sold!” Stacy sounds giddy, but Stiles kind of feels like puking, so he doesn’t say anything. She continues anyway: “Well, now you have a break for a few days. I’m looking at a few houses, thinking we could move our business to suburbs as well. Give me a call next week how you would feel about it. I mean, you can always take another apartment, but I’d really like you to try your hands at family house renovation. Well, I won’t keep you. Take care and get well soon!” Stacy chirps and hangs up before Stiles can say anything in reply.

He stares at the stuff he threw out of the drawers in his search for keys and sighs, rubs hand over his face. He should have asked Stacy if she didn’t see them. But then again, she would have probably mentioned that. So that means that Derek now has the keys from his Jeep. Fucking Derek. Who does he think he is, just coming back into Stiles life and fucking up everything? Stiles was perfectly content with his life before dog-Derek came along. Everything was quiet and peaceful… Okay, maybe sometimes it was just a bit stereotypical and lonely, but it was fine. Stiles was fine. Not great, but at least he wasn’t… At least he wasn’t staring at the mess in his living room with tears welling up in his eyes. Fuck.

 

. . .

 

Stiles wakes up with a crick in his neck and eyes all crusted up with dried tears. Apparently, he fell asleep on the couch last night. He shuffles to the shower and stands under the spray for at least half an hour until the water gets cold. He feels much better after that anyways and sits on the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in his hands. He is just contemplating taking a few extra days of vacation and flying to Vancouver, because he misses Scott, Alisson and Isaac like crazy, when there is a knock on the door.

He sets the cup down and glances at the clock. It’s nearly twelve already and Stiles feels kind of bad for a moment for wasting so much time by waking up so late. Another knocking, this time more insistent, makes him finally move towards the door. He is not even thinking about who might it be when he pulls the door open and then quickly shuts it close again.

No, this can’t be real. Stiles desperately wishes he had a peep hole so he could check, but that really looked like Derek Hale on his doorstep. He takes a few deep breaths to calm down. He doesn’t have to open the door. Derek won’t probably try to get in by force. His neighbour would notice after all. Stiles can just… ignore him. Until the end of the times. Well, it’s not like they are seeing each other regularly, so avoiding him might be kind of easy. Except… Derek bough a place to live here. And Stiles… Stiles kind of really wants an explanation. He realizes that he closed the door quite a long time ago and that Derek might have already left.

He opens the door slowly, anxious of what he will see behind it. But Derek is still there, looking uncertain and all sorts of awkward. He gives Stiles a pained smile and breathes out, “Hi.” Stiles punches him in the face.


	5. Chapter 5

“FUCK! Fucking shit, is your jaw made out of actual marble?!” yells Stiles, flailing his achy hand around. He is pretty sure the punch hurt him more than it hurt Derek, which is kind of pathetic. He closes his eyes to blink away tears and waves his hand harder in an attempt to shake off the pain. Suddenly, fingers close carefully around his wrist and pain disappears in waves. When Stiles opens his eyes, he catches black veins running up Derek’s forearm.

“You alright?” Derek asks softly, his fingers leaving Stiles’ wrist to grab his palm, turning it knuckles up. Stiles laughs and it sounds hysterical to his own ears. He pulls his hand back and glares at Derek, “Your jaw injured my hand, what do you think?” Derek lifts one eyebrow – old habits die hard – and says, “Well, you punched me so… Your own fault, really.”

“Yeah, because I am the one who pretended to be a dog, sure,” Stiles snaps and Derek flinches. Stiles feels disgustingly happy about that. “Got anything to say about that?” He says in a fake, sweet tone. “Well, come on in, if you do.” For a moment, Derek looks like he will bolt, but then he steps into the apartment and closes the door behind himself.

Stiles pushes a cup of coffee into his hands and takes a seat on a couch, his own cup refilled. Maybe Derek won’t notice how much his hands are shaking if he will hold onto to cup strongly enough. Derek looks oddly out of place in the living room, even though he spend more than two months living here, Stiles thinks bitterly. The werewolf keeps looking around as if he has never been here, not once glancing at Stiles.

Stiles taps his fingers against the cup, determined to stay patient and wait for Derek to start the conversation. He is the one who has things to explain, so he might as well get over with it. Finally, Derek clears his throat and fixes his eyes somewhere at Stiles collarbones.

“I wanted to… apologize to you,” is what he says and Stiles snorts. He immediately feels bad about it though, so he nods at the werewolf to continue. Derek takes a deep breath.  
“I’m sorry that I… didn’t tell you. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. I’m sorry.”

Stiles looks at him for a moment – at his black hair, not styled up with gel anymore, curling softly behind his ears; at his eyebrows, always so expressive; at the lashes fanning out over his cheeks as the man’s eyes turn down to stare at the floor. There is a soft blush dusting his cheekbones and the tips of his ears are turning bright shade of pink the longer the silence stretches on. His clothes are simple, just a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans, but it suits him. Stiles thinks he could probably wear a potato sack and look good in it. Stiles can’t really find it in himself to be angry anymore, instead feeling all sorts of relieved that Derek is alive and alright. But Stiles is also nothing if not stubborn, so he says: “Alright, let’s say that I forgive you – which I don’t, not yet – but let’s say I do. Why did you do it?”

Derek glances at him briefly, his expression hopeful for a split second and Stiles curses in his head, because of course the werewolf must have heard the lie in _I don’t, not yet_ part of Stiles words. Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything about that and instead starts with explanation.

“When Cora decided to leave for Europe, I couldn’t go. It just… Didn’t feel right. So I stayed, travelled from place to place, taking odd jobs. Suddenly I found myself too close to Beacon Hills and-“ Derek falls silent, taking a few deep breaths. Stiles hands itch with need to touch him, comfort him, but he holds back. “I didn’t want to come back, not really. There isn’t anything… Well, I mean, that’s not true… I mean, I-fuck!” Stiles distantly realizes that this Derek, this man stumbling over his words and expressing feelings is almost a perfect stranger. “What I am saying is, I never thought I’d come back here. And suddenly I was in the next town over and it didn’t look so scary. But I didn’t want anyone to recognize me, so I turned into wolf. I was in the Preserve, at the house… I was just skirting the edge of the town when I caught your scent and I just… I just couldn’t stop myself from running to you.”

Derek scrubs his hands through his hair quickly, leaving it all messed up. He looks at Stiles again and there is something almost frantic in his eyes as he turns his body to face the human fully. “When I saw you in the middle of that street it was like… Like I came home. You probably don’t understand, but when I’m in full shift, everything is simpler. Feelings, ideas, everything. What I felt for you before I left was suddenly so-“

“WHOA! Whoa whoa whoa! Stop right there,” exclaims Stiles, standing up quickly and spilling already cold coffee all over himself. “Your feelings for me?” He hates how his voice breaks at the end, but does Derek mean..?

Derek stands up as well, although much slower. When he speaks, he is much quieter than before, “Forgive me, I shouldn’t have… I’ve said too much. The point is – I didn’t mean to make you sad. I’m sorry that I did anyway.”  
“Were you ever planning on telling me?” Stiles asks, even though he isn’t sure if he wants to hear the answer.  
Derek looks him straight in the eyes and for the first time holds his gaze. “I honestly don’t know. I was content being as I was. You smelled happy and I was just glad to be with you, even if you thought I’m a dog. So… Probably not. I couldn’t imagine situation in which you would take it well. I didn’t expect Cora to call you.”

Stiles looks around the room and suddenly realizes what a mess is his living room – few of his drawers are still upended on the floor. “Ugh, sorry for the mess, I was just looking for something and didn’t really have time to-“ Something clinks and when Stiles looks for the source of the sound, Derek is holding his car keys at the eye level. “I think you forgot it at my place,” he says and chuckles.  He gets serious almost immediately, though. “Sorry. I just… It was always me climbing out of your window, not the other way around.”

“Well, it wasn’t your window yet when I was climbing out of it, so…” Stiles mumbles.  
“I didn’t know who worked on that loft. When I walked in all I could smell was you and it caught me by surprise. I could hear you in the next room, panicking, your heartbeat as fast as it used to be when we were in trouble. I wanted to go to you, calm you down, but then I heard you climbing out of the window, so…” Derek says, his ears pinking up again.  
“So you what? Bought the place just because it smelled like me? That’s kind of creepy. And sad. I really liked what I did with that place,” Stiles grumbles.  
“I did too! I loved it! You are talented, I should have listened when you used to tell me what to do with my old loft,” Derek says and he sounds so earnest that Stiles believes him.  
“Well, that’s… good to hear. Thanks.”  
“Look I… I think I better go,” the werewolf shrugs all of sudden and Stiles is kind of blindsided by it. Derek just told him about his _feelings_ and now he is leaving without any follow-up?   
“Already? I mean. Uh. Sure. Thanks for… Explaining, I guess.” God, does he really sound so disappointed? He wanted to be angry at Derek, dammit!   
“I wanted to-“ says Derek at the same time as Stiles asks: “Do you think-“ They both chuckle. “You first,” nods Stiles.

Derek looks nervous when he speaks, “I want to see you again. If you want, of course. We could have a dinner or something?” Stiles stares at him in shock. Probably for too long, because Derek’s face closes off and he adds, “Or not. I understand if you won’t want to see me again. What I did was… I will stay out of your way.”  
“No!” Stiles exclaims. “I want to. See you again, that’s it. It’s just bit too much all of sudden? Just… give me your number and I will text you, sounds good?”

Big, beautiful smile blooms on Derek face and Stiles is stunned into silence once again. He never saw Derek smile all that much, but this? This would make angles weep. Suddenly Derek is in motion, grabbing a pen lying on the coffee table and a piece of paper from the mess on the floor, scribbling down a number and then pushing it into Stiles’ hands. “Text me. Or… or call me. Or don’t, but… Please, do.” It’s adorable how eager Derek sounds, but it’s also kind of weirding Stiles out. This is not the broody, angsty Alpha that pushed Stiles into walls. It’s all so surreal that Stiles only manages to nod. Derek smiles at him again and then he is gone. Stiles is standing alone in his apartment and can’t believe what this day turned out to be. Derek Hale felt (feels?) something for him. Jesus fucking Christ.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, feelings, am I right?!  
> Hopefully I didn't go overboard with them ;)


	6. Chapter 6

“Stiles! Hey! What’s up?”  
“Hello, Scotty. How are you guys doing?”

Stiles might have panicked a bit after Derek left earlier this day. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that his feelings weren’t one sided. He’d never have guessed. Sure, sometimes Derek looked at him like he saw something he wanted to devour, but Stiles figured it’s mostly the predator showing, wanting to _rip his throat out with its teeth_ for his babbling. And sure, Derek always wanted to keep Stiles save, even when he went about it all wrong – really, telling Stiles that he is not pack to keep him out of danger? That was truly a pathetic and embarrassing moment for both of them, because they both knew it’s not true and that Derek was just grasping for straws here.

Stiles absently realizes that Scott is still rambling on the other end of the line, so he gives him a noncommittal hum in response and asks, “Umm, Scott, there is a reason I called you and it wasn’t really about catching up. Not that I don’t miss you! But… Uh, so,” God, why is this so hard? Scott, mercifully, stays silent and waits for Stiles to get it out. “Okay. Alright. So, Derek showed up.”  
“What?! Really?” Scott sounds both excited and freaked out. “Is this another emergency?”  
“No, nothing like that. You remember my dog, right? The black one?”  
“Uh, I think I lost your train of thoughts here, but sure. It’s not like you ever had any other dog.” Right, that’s true.  
“Well… The dog was Derek. Derek was the dog. The dog wasn’t a dog, but-“  
“Okay! I get it,” Scott always knows when to stop Stiles’ rambling. “So, what? He turned back into human and told you? Why did he do it? Are you safe?”  
“No, Cora called me when she saw the photo on FB. Derek, still shifted, freaked out and ran away. I haven’t seen him for two weeks, but he visited today,” Stiles says. Alright, now the tricky part. “Look, he… He tried to explain. Told me that he didn’t want to lie to me like that, that he wanted to just _be my dog_. That’s kind of creepy, right? He said… He said that as a wolf, his feeling are like, simpler?”  
At that, Scott says: “Yeah, I think I know what he means. When I do a beta shift, I run mostly on instinct, basic wants and needs. It must be much stronger when in full shift.”

“Um, look… I need to ask, don’t judge me! So, like… Did you know that Derek was attracted to me?”  
Scott splutters, “What? Why would you… I mean, well… He always smelled interested when you were around? Is that what you are asking about? Now that I’m thinking about it, he was always much more protective of you than of anyone else. I always figured it’s because you are human, but he didn’t care much for Lydia’s or Danny’s safety. Did he say anything?”  
“Weeeeell… He might have implied that he had feelings for me before he left and that he might still have them?” Stiles doesn’t know why is he making that a question.  
“Oh. And do you still..?” Scott asks.  
“Do I still what?” Technically, he never told anyone what he felt for Derek. It just didn’t come up. Plus telling anyone would make it too real and Stiles’ middle name is Denial. So there. He should have known Scott has him all figured out.  
“C’mon. We never had a heart to heart about it, but I know about your crush on him.”  
“It’s wasn’t a crush!” splutters Stiles. “It was more of a… I think I was in love with him?” he mumbles. “I think I still am.”

Scott keeps quiet, letting Stiles go through myriad of feelings. He feels horrified and stupid and hopeful and… “Fuck,” he utters finally, remembering the night he said the same to Alpha. Alpha, who was in fact Derek. God.  
“Hey, but it’s good? It sounds like he has it just as bad, so where is the problem? What he did wasn’t really… But I mean… You could be happy?” Scott sounds so indulgent, always a hopeless romantic.  
“I don’t even know him anymore, Scott. He is like a completely new person! He doesn’t brood! He smiles! He talks about stuff!” Stiles cries.  
“That’s great! Means there will be only one emotionally stunted idiot in you relationship!”  
“Oh, fuck you, Scott, that was a low blow!” Stiles snaps, but there is no heat behind it. His best friend is right.

They chat for another hour after that, about nothing and everything, and when they finally hang up, Stiles feels determined. He wants to get to know this new Derek. Wants to give it a shot.

 

Friday rolls around finally and Stiles finds himself at a family dinner again. “Hey, could you like, pose for a photo? I will send it to Derek,” he says to his dad and Melissa when they are sitting over desert. They share a look, but then his dad dutifully puts on his _angered sheriff/furious parent expression_. Melissa, bless her heart, tries to frown for a second or two, but then it just melts into soft smile. She always had kind of a soft spot for Derek, however weird that was.

He takes the photo and sends it to the number saved as Sourwolf (c’mon, that one was obvious!) with caption: **_Melissa says hi. Dad says watch out.  
_** His phone chirps with answer not even a minute later. **_Uh oh_** , it reads.

“I see you are not really that mad,” his dad says.  
“What?”  
“You are sending him photos, Stiles. And smiling over his reply,” the Sheriff says in a voice heavily implying that he is talking to someone really dumb.  
“I am not smiling!” Stiles exclaims and glances at Melissa. She just shrugs at him and Stiles groans. “Alright, maybe I am. So what. What he did was creepy, but it’s Derek. That’s just how he rolls.”  
“And that’s all?”  
“Is this interrogation? I thought it’s you day off!” grumbles Stiles.  
“It is. I’m just worried about you,” his dad says in a calm voice.  
“I know and I’m glad, just… He really changed, Dad. He might like me back after all. I want to give it a chance,” Stiles mumbles.  
“Alright. But if he fucks up… Just let me know and I will shoot him,” his dad growls, ruffling Stiles’ hair as he stands up to clean up the table.

 

S: **You have snapchat?**  
D: **Wait a moment**  
D: **Now I do, why?  
** S: **Did you seriously just download it?**  
D: **Maybe  
** S: **My nick is stileski, add me  
** D: **I’m not really sure what this thing does  
** S: **No worries, you will find out soon enough**

D: **Are you in a hospital? Did something happen to you???  
** S: **Yeah and no. Just bringing Melissa lunch.  
** D: **Oh. Right.  
** S: **But it’s nice that you… care.  
** D: **I do. Want you safe.  
** S: **I know.**

Stiles smiles to himself and starts thinking about the best restaurant in town for their first date.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Stiles lets the phone ring once, twice and again and again… He is about to hang up, when Derek picks up. “Stiles?” the werewolf says with breathy voice, “Sorry, I was in a shower.”  
“Um,” Stiles replies intelligently.  
“You okay?”  
“I was… You. Shower. Right. I mean, I’m calling about that dinner you wanted to grab with me.”  
“Yeah?” Derek asks and by the tone of his voice, he is obviously pleased.  
“Well, you know, I’m not really feeling it.”  
“Oh,” the change of Derek’s mood is instant and Stiles facepalms. Talk about poor choice of words.  
“No! Not like you think. God, I suck at this! I was thinking more about you coming to my place? We could order pizza and watch movie? Just hang out, no pressure?” Why is he wording everything as questions?  
“That sounds… That… I’d like that,” Derek says softly.  
“I’m not saying no to dinner ever, but… I’ve never really done _this_ and you are _you_ and it’s…  I still can’t really believe it’s not just me, you know?” Stiles really doesn’t know why is he telling Derek that. It was always so embarrassing in his mind, admitting his non-existent experience in dating field. But somehow, he is sure Derek won’t judge him.  
“It’s not just you. I… Stiles, I really like you. It’s alright that you want to take it slow. I’m not really… Well, you know my history and- So yeah.”  
“You babbling like that is really out of character. It’s kind of weirding me out, to be honest,” Stiles mumbles.  
Derek laughs, a bright beautiful sound. “I bet. Let’s just say that I had an inspiration somewhere. Look, so… When are you free?”  
“Today?”  
“Are you asking me?”  
“No. I’m free today. That okay with you?” Stiles says, feeling giddy.  
“More than okay,” Derek’s voice drops lower and it shouldn’t sound so hot, but it does. “I’ll come by around seven. See you then, Stiles.”

 

. . .

 

Stiles cleans his apartment with more care than he ever did. Twice. Choosing the right outfit turns out to be an hour-long ordeal. Finally, he decides on plain jeans and dark red t-shirt, so… Pretty much his usual, then. He is certain that Lydia would be disappointed if she saw him. He is still left with more than thirty minutes to stress over _Derek coming over for a date_. It’s really happening. This is his teenage fantasy! Well, more like prelude to his usual teenage fantasies, but whatever.

He is just re-organizing take out menus from local restaurants for tenth time when there’s a knock on the door. He takes a deep breath and strides over, pulling the door open. He planned on a cool and suave greeting, but all words leave him when he sees Derek. He didn’t put on anything fancy, his clothes mostly mirroring Stiles’ own lazily casual style, but oh god, his smile. Stiles can’t believe anyone could look so happy to see him. They stare at each for a while, grinning like idiots, when Stiles finally remembers his (mostly) good manners and opens the door wider, letting Derek inside.

“I- This is for you,” Derek says, handing over a bouquet of- “Are those roses made out of bacon?” Stiles asks incredulously and at Derek’s nod, he says: “Dude! I love y- Bacon. I love bacon,” he finishes with pained smile. That was close. He almost told Derek… The man in question is smirking though and Stiles frowns at himself, because, well, they already had their heart-to-heart, so what’s the point in denying that?

“Alright, no. What I wanted to say was that I love _you_ , Derek,” Stiles says and he tries to sound confident, but he is aware that his voice kind of broke at the end and oh god, what was he thinking? It’s their first date. Derek said just today that he wants to take this slow and instead Stiles just goes and barfs his feelings all over-

But that would be Derek’s hand on his cheek and his thumb rubbing softly over Stiles’ cheek and yeah, those are his lips brushing tenderly against the corner of Stiles’ mouth. “Love you, too,” Derek breaths out when he pulls back, blushing adorably. Stiles distantly realized that he must looks pretty unattractive right now, with his mouth hanging open like that.

“So, food?” Derek asks as if nothing happened (but he is still blushing like crazy, so!) and picks up the menus scattered over the table.  
“Yeah! Just… pick whatever,” Stiles says finally. He forces himself to relax and continues, “I was thinking we could watch Batman or-“ Derek is looking at him like he wants to eat him up. “-orrrr we could just make out?” He finishes lamely, but Derek is at him in an instant, his hands resting surely on Stiles’ hips, pulling him closer. Their lips meet once again and their kiss for real, Stiles’ tongue licking into Derek’s mouth. The werewolf lets out a groan and Stiles thinks that this is the best first kiss he ever had. So of course just then his stomach rumbles.

Derek leans back, resting their foreheads together and snorts, “I think we should just order something.”  
“Yeah, this isn’t really going as I imagined it,” Stiles admits.  
“And what did you imagine?” Derek asks, his mouth brushing right next to Stiles’ ear, making him shiver.  
“So many things. So many. I have like five years of fantasies about you,” Stiles whispers.  
“One day I’ll make you describe all of them,” Derek says and it sounds like a promise that he punctuates with another kiss before stepping away and finally making a move to order something. Stiles hastily busies himself with putting the movie disk into the DVD player and getting drinks for both of them.

Ten minutes into the movie, their pizzas arrive and they munch on them quietly, watching Christian Bale angsting all over the screen. When all the food is gone, Stiles cleans up the boxes and then he hovers awkwardly next to the couch. Finally, he makes his decision, sitting down and sliding right next to Derek, pushing their bodies together. One of the werewolf’s arms wraps around him securely, pulling him closer to his chest. Stiles lets out contented sigh.

“I missed this,” Derek mumbles.  
“Me too,” Stiles agrees.  
“I was a dog.”  
“Yeah well, it was still nice, so there,” Stiles snaps back, but there is no heat behind it.  
“I was trying to be romantic here,” Derek grumbles.  
Stiles twists to look at him and says with a smirk: “Were you now? Well, it just sounds like you are being awfully jealous of _yourself_.”  
“Shut up,” Derek growls and Stiles laughs.  
“Now this is the Derek Hale I know!”

Derek frowns at him, but the effort is kind of ruined by corners of his mouth turning up in a smile. Stiles lifts a hand to smooth his thumb over Derek’s dark eyebrows and then lets his fingers tangle in werewolf’s hair. “Hey,” he whispers, “I’m serious though. I missed you a whole lot.” Derek turns his head to the side, turning into the touch of Stiles’ hand, “I’m sorry I left like that.”  
Stiles shakes his head, “You did what you had to. You came back, that’s all what matters.”  
“I’d always come back to you.”  
“Wow, who knew you are such a smooth talker,” says Stiles with a wiggle to his eyebrows (shut up, he’s being totally sexy) and a kiss pressed to Derek’s jaw.  
The werewolf shrugs, “Not you. I wasn’t when we met, not after... But, I started seeing a therapist after I left with Cora. I met a woman in Wisconsin who… Well, let just say that I didn’t have to lie about anything to her.”  
“That’s good. I’m happy for you,” Stiles says. “So, what was she? A banshee? A siren? A witch?”  
Derek snorts, “No. Just a normal human.” At Stiles’ surprised expression he adds, “Well, her late husband was a werewolf, so there is your connection.”

They finish the movie and then just cuddle on the couch as Derek talks about what he did with Cora before she headed to Europe. It’s nearly midnight when there is finally lull in the conversation.  
“I should head to my place,” Derek says, his fingers brushing over the back of Stiles’ neck.  
“Or you could stay…” Stiles says, trying to sound flirty. He leans in for a kiss and whispers, “We could make out.”  
Derek sighs against his mouth, “If I make out with you, I won’t be able to stop.”  
“Would that be such a bad thing?”  
“No…”  
“But?”  
“But I want to make this right. Will you let me?” Derek asks and continues before Stiles can say anything. “I want to take you out. Have a dinner. See a movie. Have a stroll in a park, hold hands.”  
“Ugh, you make nice and slow sound so sexy,” groans Stiles. “But you are right. I am pretty sure we skipped a few steps anyway, with you sniffing my crotch and what not.”  
“You will never shut up about that, will you?”  
“Hmm, let me think about- No. No, I won’t,” sniggers Stiles.

“Why am I even surprised,” Derek says with a smile and stands up. Stiles does the same, wrapping his arms around Derek from behind, hooking his chin over the werewolf’s shoulder. Wrapped up together like that, they waddle to the apartment door. There, Derek turns around in Stiles’ arms and kisses him again. He doesn’t let Stiles deepen the kiss again, though. “Call me, okay? Good night, Stiles.”  
Stiles nods, “I will. Good night, Sourwolf.” Derek gives him one last eye-roll and leaves.


	8. Chapter 8

“YOU WHAT NOW?” the Sheriff yells, turning wildly to glance at Melissa and back at Stiles. Stiles winces and then turns back to glare at Derek when he feels him inching behind him. The werewolf gives him a shrug. He looks freaked out and Stiles would laugh at him, but he has been on the receiving end of his father’s anger enough times to feel sorry for Derek. But then again, he brought this on himself.

“We are dating,” Stiles repeats himself, taking care to sound confident.  
“I heard you the first time,” his dad mutters and sighs, “I just- _he pretended to be your dog_!” the Sheriff stage-whispers and really? Even if Derek wasn’t standing _right here_ , he would have heard him, werewolf super-hearing and all.  
“Well, he-“ Stiles starts, but then Derek finally takes step forward, shielding Stiles with his body and the young man has to stop himself from cooing, because this is just so precious, Derek shielding him from his own dad.  
“I wanted to apologize, sir. What I did was unacceptable, but believe me when I say I didn’t intend to harm Stiles in any way,” Derek says and then glances at Stiles before continuing, “I would never.”

The Sheriff takes another deep breath, presumable to disagree with everything once again, when Melissa takes a step next to him and puts her hand on his arm. “John, calm down. Look at Derek, how honestly sorry he looks,” she says softly and Stiles feels a surge of affection towards her again, before she adds, “The idiot is obviously in love with Stiles. You should pity him, not yell at him.”  
“Hey now!” Stiles squeaks, not sure if he is more offended on Derek’s or his own behalf, but Melissa is smiling and giving him a wink.  
Sheriff is looking a bit ill, but when he speaks again, he sounds much calmer, “Are you now? In… in love with my son?”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“I’m so sorry, Derek.” Sheriff says with a chuckle and Stiles groans, “Really, dad? Really? That’s how you feel about your only child?” But both his dad and Melissa have already disappeared to kitchen. He exchanges look with Derek and notes that the werewolf looks adorably confused. He grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze, “Looks like we are good!”  
“This is good?” Derek asks incredulously.  
“Hey, they insulted you and embarrassed me, this is all the blessing we can hope for. C’mon, let’s eat,” Stiles chirps, pressing a kiss against Derek’s cheek before leading them both to the kitchen.

The rest of the evening is mercifully Stiles-ribbing free. The conversation flows more or less freely, with Derek asking Melissa about Scott and Isaac and the Sheriff asking Derek about his living and work arrangements. He doesn’t look all that thrilled when Derek tells him he doesn’t have a job now, but relaxes when the werewolf adds that he is looking at his options, because he gets bored just sitting around.

They are just about to leave when the Sheriff puts his hand on Derek’s shoulder, saying: “Stiles, go wait in a car for a bit. I want to have a talk with your… boyfriend.”  
“What? No, dad!” Stiles yells, but he just gets a glare in return.  
“Hush, now. It’s my responsibility as your father to lay down some rules. Plus, you’ve never let me intimidate any boy or girl with my gun, so there.”  
“Hey, don’t use my non-existent love life against me!”  
“Stiles, it’s okay,” Derek says, giving him a smile, even though he looks like he is ready to bolt.  
“Fine,” Stiles grunts, kisses Melissa goodbye and leaves for his car.

 

. . .

 

It’s whole twenty minutes later when the front door of Stilinski’s residence _finally_ open and Derek steps out. Stiles isn’t entirely sure what he have expected, but Derek smiling smugly sure as hell wasn’t it. When Derek opens the door and takes the passenger seat, Stiles asks, “So, who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”

Instead of answering, Derek just leans over the console and gives Stiles the filthiest kiss they have shared so far, moaning into it like he was starving for him. When he pulls back after what feels like eternity, Stiles’ mouth follows him dumbly. Finally, Stiles shakes off his daze. “Well… Okay then,” he says, starting the Jeep up.

He drives them to his apartment without thinking and when he realizes, he glances at Derek guiltily, “Uh, sorry. Did you want me to drive you home?”  
“Yeah,” Derek says, still smirking.  
“Alright, let’s-“ Stiles is reaching for the key, but Derek is already out of the car, giving him a meaningful look. “Oh. _Oh_ ,” Stiles says and scrambles out of the Jeep. “Really?” he breathes out when he is pressed up against Derek, the werewolf’s hands sweeping up and down his torso.  
“You are my home,” Derek breathes against his neck where he has been sniffing him.  
“That was so awfully cheesy,” Stiles groans, but he presses up against Derek even more. “It was also the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”  
“Good,” Derek rumbles and begins pushing Stiles towards the building entrance.  
“Are you secretly getting off on being my first real boyfriend?”  
“Uh-huh.”  
“Seriously, what did my dad tell you to make you act like this?”

 

. . .

 

Stiles finishes his original thought five minutes later when he is lying on his bed with Derek leaning over him where he is nestled between his legs. “You could have been my first everything, you know,” he says, breathless from how Derek is kissing and biting on his throat.  
Derek stills and mutters against Stiles’ skin: “I couldn’t. Not back then. But now I’m going to enjoy all the firsts you will give me.” He punctuates that statement with a biting kiss.  
Stiles tangles his fingers in Derek’s hair, pulling him back to look him in the eye, “You are the first and only I’ve ever loved, so how is that?”  
“Perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, this got more touchy-feely than I originally intented, but I hope it didn't disappoint you. I believe in all the love and all the cheesy romance. Sorry!
> 
> Also, I've decided this will have nine chapters. Which is also much more than I intended. But I like where I went with it and I can only hope you like it too. Let me know what you think either way.


	9. Chapter 9

**TWO YEARS LATER…**

 

Stiles reaches out with his palm up, “Nail.”  
Body presses up along the line of his back. “Oh, I will nail you, alright,” Derek growls out right next to his ear, pawing at younger man’s hips.  
“Dereeeek, c’mon, I’ve told Stacy we will be done with this house by the end of the week, so pass me the fucking nail.”  
There is a grunt against the back of his neck, “I keep forgetting how serious you are about work.”  
“You never would have guessed, hmm? And anyway, it’s your work too, so there. You know Stacy will give us whole month of vacation if we finish this on schedule. I thought you wanted to visit Scott and others?”  
“Right now I’d rather spend whole month in bed with you, to be honest.”  
“I… have to admit that sounds great, but we’ve already bought tickets. And Isaac is really looking forward to seeing you, you know that.”

Instead of replying, Derek begins kissing the curve of Stiles’ neck. Stiles ignores him, before it gets too much and then he just tilts his head to the side, giving the werewolf more access. As expected, it earns him a pleased rumble. “Ugh, you are the worst,” Stiles groans. “I’m not gonna fuck you here, just so you know. I wouldn’t be able to whoever we sell it to in the eyes, knowing I had sex on stragers’ floor.”

“I’ll buy the house, then,” Derek murmurs against the skin of Stiles’ throat. Younger man freezes and turns around, stares at Derek incredulously, “You will what?” Derek sighs as if it pains him to answer, but then he tightens his hold on Stiles lips and says, “I’ll buy the house. For you.”  
“You that horny, really?” Stiles laughs, a bit hysterically, because what?  
“No. I just… Would that be too bad? To… To move in together, officially? I basically live at your place anyway.”  
“Are you saying..?”  
“Yeah.”

Stiles flings himself at Derek, kissing him deeply, clutching at his neck like it’s a lifeline. He pulls back eventually, panting a bit. His chest feels all fuzzy inside. “Alright, okay, but we are not painting the kitchen in pea green.”

 

. . .

 

“Stiles, stop tugging on your tie! I won’t tie it for you again,” Scott exclaims, slapping his best friend’s hands away from his tie.  
“I’m just so nervous, Scotty! How are you so calm?!” Stiles squeaks, pulling on his sleeves, now that he is forbidden from touching the stupid tie, god that thing is choking him.  
Scott squeezes his shoulder and says with a chuckle, “Well, it’s not _my_ wedding, so why should I be nervous?”  
“Oh my god, show some sympathy, will you?”  
“Stops being so dramatic. Have you seen Derek already?” Scott asks and even though his attempt at changing the topic is nice, he is not being subtle at all.  
“No. God, no. I’m gonna faint when I see him! Have you seen Derek in a suit? Oh god. _Oh god_!”  
“STILES!” Scott yells and Stiles jerks in surprise, stops panicking. “Calm the fuck down. You know what your dad said.” Scott pinches his eyebrows together in a funny way and with a voice deeper than his own, quotes: “ _Stiles, if you ruin my wedding with Melissa, I will put you in a jail for two months and I don’t care about how pouty Derek will get!_ ”  
“Derek is adorable when he pouts, though,” Stiles says dreamily, his stress over _his father’s wedding_ forgotten.

“I am not,” says stony voice coming from the door and when Stiles turns around, his chin drops and he just stares. Derek really looks stunning in a suit. His pale green shirt brings out his eyes and the stubble on his cheeks is trimmed so delicately it might as well be considered art. Stiles really feels like fainting, but then Derek’s strong arms are wrapping around him and there is a kiss pressed against his temple. “You ready to go?” Derek asks as Scott makes retching sounds in the background. Whatever, he and Alisson are even more disgusting.

 

. . .

 

Stiles is almost 25 and he is not alone anymore. Maybe he didn’t finish school and maybe he never left Beacon Hills, but he has Derek _who loves him_ by his side and that’s more than he ever thought he will have.

 

Oh, and did he mention they have a husky puppy now? Stiles might have or might not have named him Alpha. You know, just to fuck with certain werewolf.


End file.
